Sophie has spent more than 80days above 4800m in the last 3 months

How to qualify my Broad Peak climb in one word : Resilience

Broad Peak

Attempt #1 (summit scheduled June 26th) : We were climbing alpine style. During our summit push we got cut in a wind storm. We when down to Base Camp the same day

Attempt #2 (summit scheduled July 6th): After going through a wind storm, we finally reached Camp 3. But no tent as waiting for us. Our tent got covered up y an avalanche. We had to go down

Attempt #3 (summit scheduled on July 14th): Starting at 9:30pm, we climbed for about 13h and reached only 7900m. Snow was deep, and fixing rope took the team a long time, long enough to freeze my toes. I had a small frostbite at big toe, we had to go down. We when down to Base Camp (4800m) from 7900m

Attempt #4 : SUMMIT. I summit on july 25th !

K2 - we reached and sleep at Camp IV

K2's Attempt #1 (summit scheduled on august 6th): We should have start at 1am. Waking up at midnight, we'd checked on the weather every 30 minutes. But the wind did not slow down. At 5am we could see very high winds at the top, and at 7am it was a white out. Weather tuning sour, and the weather forecast predicating bad weather for the next day, we 've decided to go down. 

 

Appel de Sophie du K2 camp 2

Appel de Sophie à Yves Denis (Paris samedi 06/08/2011 à 15h45)

Vendredi, nous avons atteint le camp 4. Ce matin, de 00h00 à 03h00, nous nous sommes réveillés Lakpa, Louis et moi toutes les 30 minutes pour surveiller la météo. A 05h00, il y avait trop de vent et surtout un voile blanc de tempête qui ne permet pas de prendre des repères au risque de se perdre. D'autre part le camp de base nous annonce que la pression tombe et que le temps va se dégrader. Nous avons décidé de redescendre, l'équipe étant trop réduite, la montée devenait trop dangereuse, c'est dommage car physiquement et moralement, le sommet était à notre portée.
Pour moi la montée du K2 s'est faite en 4 jours, dans des conditions météo formidables, car nous n'avions de la neige que jusqu'aux genoux, le paysage était magnifique et j'étais très émue. Ce sera une expérience inoubliable.
Je referai une tentative, mais avec une équipe solide car nous montons près de 1000 mètres par jour.
Après de nombreux soucis avec les porteurs, pourtant payés et qui au C2 nous disent "on est malade, on ne peut pas monter" ou "c'est trop lourd", nous nous sommes chargés nous même d'aller rechercher du matériel, portant l'oxygène et 200m de corde, soit 6 kg en plus.
Samedi 6 nous avons donc fait la descente et nous sommes au camp 2. Demain nous allons du C2 au camp de base.
Le 8 nous aurons redescendu le matériel. Puis il y aura 12 heures de marche pour atteindre Skardou et enfin 6 heures pour atteindre Kachgar d'où je prendrai un avion pour Islamabad où je doit être reçue à l'Ambassade de France pour une conférence de presse.
Au programme 15 jours de repos, (je dors actuellement sur mes cotes !)
Encore 2 sommets et je rentre en France vers le 18 novembre, peut-être le 11.

News from the explorersweb: Summit day postponed

Here is the link of the article http://www.explorersweb.com/everest_k2/news.php?id=20276
and hereunder an extract

Posted: Aug 05, 2011 02:52 am EDT
(Angela Benavides) Tough conditions prevented most K2 summit climbers from reaching C4 as planned. Only the ABC team members Gerfried Göschl, Alex Txikon and Kilian Volken managed to reach the camp's location at 7,900m, while all other teams were forced to stop for the night between C3 and C4.
"The delayed climbers are carrying ropes and essential gear to fix some of the mountain's upper sections," Alex home team explained. "Thus, Gerfried, Alex and Kilian have spent all night waiting for the rest and evaluating their options: to remain over 24 hours at nearly 8,000 meters, or to abandon the attempt. Finally, this morning they decided to go on."
"I am feeling strong - and I've worked so hard on this attempt," Alex said on the sat-phone. "It's worth to wait one day and try to top-out all together tomorrow."
Noone has summited K2 since the dramatic push of 2008. Alex, on the contrary, has already managed a GI+G2 double header and now aims to make a triplet of it with K2.
Meanwhile in BC, FTA's Chris confirmed the news and reported on today's plans: the climbers will fix the Bottleneck. FTA's team has been reduced to Sophie Denis, Lakpa and two HAPS's, after rob Pringer turned back yesterday.

Chris' phone call: Camp 3 in spite of high wind (and on the way to camp 4)

Chris called FTA office in (see this link FTA blog) to let us know that the summit push is under way and they  reached C3 on the 3rd as planned. Sophie, Lakpa, Farhad, Aziz and Said were in C3 last night and hope to push to C4 today. Rob came back down to BC after pushing towards C3 and is reconsidering his options at this time.
The winds have been very strong even at base camp so they will be watching carefully this afternoon and evening for the very latest reports before making a final call on a summit bid on the 5th. All members are safe and sound and Chris will have more later today on how the push to C4 has gone. Stay tuned!

Chris  a appelé le siège de FTA et les a informé que la route vers le sommet a commencé. Ils ont atteint le camp 3 le 3 aout comme prévu. Sophie Lakpa Farhad Aziz et Said étaient au camp 3 la nuit dernière et espèrent atteindre la camp 4 aujourd'hui  (le 4 mais nous n'avons pas confirmation pour l'instant). Rob est finalement retourné au camp de base (après avoir atteint le camp 3).
Même au camp de base, les vents ont été assez violents, à partir du camp 4 (le 4) ils devront donc être très attentifs à l'évolution des conditions météo l'après midi et en début de soirée avant de partir pour le sommet le 5 (ils doivent passer un coup de fil avant de se lancer).
Tous les membres du groupe se portent bien .
Restez en ligne, 
les choses peuvent vite évoluer dans les prochaines heures

News from the explorerweb:August 4th 2011

Link to the article: http://www.explorersweb.com/everest_k2/news.php?id=20274 and an extract of the article hereunder

Posted: Aug 04, 2011 02:16 pm EDT
(By Dave Hancock) 
In Skardu, FTA leader Dave Hancock just submitted the following report to ExplorersWeb. FTA lost a client on Broad Peak and have a bunch pushing for the summit of K2 right now. Here goes a debrief and thoughts straight from the horse's mouth.

High hopes for K2 tonight
By Dave Hancock

"There is significant anticipation surrounding K2 tonight both amongst the asssembled returned climbers and outfitters in Skardu, and no doubt the respective BC teams at the foot of the hill. By various reports up to 17 climbers are poised at camp 4 for a summit attempt tomorrow, including FTA members Sophie Denis, Rob Springer and Lapka, and our two HAP's.
A huge high pressure system has parked itself across the top of northern Pakistan, and while some European models are predicting possibly higher winds late tomorrow, all indicators locally are fuelling hopes for a near perfect weather window. As the suns sets this evening across the Indus basin in Skardu, there is not a breath of wind and the temperature remains well into the high 20's celsius. K2 has not seen a person stand upon her summit since 2008.

Sophie's phone call: K2 Camp 2 the second

Today the international group leaved Base camp (5100m) at 3h40am.
The group is composed of 14 people and due to a lot of snow, all the people have decided to follow the CESEN road (K2 roads including CESEN road).
At the beginning of the climbing day, Sophie has difficulties to feel concerned by the climbing but after 2h00 of effort, the 60° of the mountain slope make her back to business with her well known dynamism. Broad Peak was emotionally a big challenge and all the climbers need time to focus on K2.
For information, with a slope higher than 45°, every fall and slide can not be stopped by the climber itself and can be the last one (be careful do not confuse the slope in ° and %).

At 12h the second, the whole group is in camp 2 around 6000M
the third, the group will be in camp 3
the fourth, the group will be in camp 4
And the 5: Summit day

Aujourd'hui le groupe international de 14 personnes a quitté le camp de base (5100m) vers 3h40 du matin. A cause de conditions de neige et météo assez moyenne, l'ensemble des grimpeurs a décidé de parcourir la voie CESEN (K2 roads including CESEN road).
Au début de la montée Sophie a un moral bas, mais après 2h00, la pente atteignant les 60° Sophie est obligée de se concentrer, retrouve son dynamisme et oublie ses pensées négatives. A midi, le groupe est au camp 2 vers 6000 mètres. 
Les objectifs sont les suivants: 
le 3 au camp 3
le 4 au camp 4
le 5 au sommet.

FTA K2/Broad Peak 2011 - Update from K2 BC

From this link: FTA blog

Chris has called in with an update from K2 where the team is now resting in preparation for a summit bid. Lakpa, Chris and the HAPs (Farhad, Aziz and Said) have now carried gear (rope, tents etc) and oxygen in C2 in preparation for a summit push this week. Everyone is back at BC with a rest day planned for August 1st. As it stands they plan to ascend to C2 on the 2nd, C3 on the 3rd, C4 on the 4th and then make a summit bid on the 5th.  They are running into deep snow high on the route and this will represent a real challenge to establishing camp on the Shoulder in the days ahead so there will be a need for sharing the hard work to do.

They are hopeful to make a bid on Friday the 5th and the weather will dictate this possibility. The predictions have been for calm summit winds for the 2nd to 5th but there looks now to be rising summit winds on the 5th so that window may close before they can make this push in which case they will hope for another window the following week.

At this time FTA members Sophie, Rob and Lakpa will plan to make a summit bid with Chris planning to be in C2 in support during the bid.  Farhad, Aziz and Said plan to deposit O2 and other gear in C4 and return to C3 on the 3rd. It is a real challenge for them to deliver these supplies to C4 and our success will depend a lot on how successful they are in their role. They have worked very hard for our team on Broad Peak and have been a tremendous asset to the expedition as a whole.

Chris notes that the group of climbers now assembled on the Cesen are largely familiar to each other and that they are cooperating very well. Among them are FTA alum Alex Txicon who became the youngest Basque climber to reach an 8000m summit in 2003 on Broad  Peak. As well Bruno Buchet who was with FTA in 2005 on Broad Peak is on the hill and joining to push. Fabrizio and Kinga who had planned to climb a different route but have been forced by conditions back on to known ground.  Christian, Gerfried and more round out the assembled group. Initially teams were to have been on up to three different routes but now all hopes lie in the Cesen from the Pakistan side.

Broad Peak K2 Climbing Strategy

BROAD PEAK
Jun. 14th - Rest day at Sarkdu - Folding ropes and checking tents
Jun. 15th - Rest day at Sarkdu - Last shopping By jeeps to Askole (8-9 hrs) at 3000 meters.
Approach
Jun. 16th - By jeeps to Askole (8-9 hrs) at 3000 meters
Jun. 17th - Drive from Dumordu River to Jhola (8-9 hrs).
Jun. 18th - Trek to Paiyu, good views of Baltoro and trango group (7 hrs).
Jun. 19th - Day free at Paiyu for acclimatization (3600m).
Jun. 20th - Trek to Khuburtze (5-8 hrs): 4000 m.
Jun. 21st - Trek to Urdukas: 4-5 hrs walk mostly along the crest of lateral moraine
Jun. 22nd - Trek to Goro II: Glacier for 3-4 hrs to the camp site at 4500 meters
Jun. 23rd - Trek to Concordia: 5-6 hours slightly easy walk, with spectacular views
Jun. 24th - Trek to Broad Peak Base Camp
Jun. 25th - Rest day at Base Camp
Jun. 26th - Rest day at Base Camp (wait for weather window)
Broad Peak Climbing Strategy
Once good weather window, I will try a Summit attempt which would follow this itinerary:
Day 1 : Base Camp to Camp 1
Day 2 : Camp 1 to Camp 2
Day 3 : Camp 2 to Camp 3
Day 4 : Camp 3 to Summit to Camp 3
Day 5 : Base Camp

Broad Peak Camps

1 week rest

K2 climbing strategy
when good weather window, I will try a Summit attempt which should follow the itinerary below:
Day 1 : Base Camp to Camp 1
Day 2 : Camp 1 to Camp 2
Day 3 : Camp 2 to Camp 3
Day 4 : Camp 3 to Camp 4
Day 5 : Camp 4 to Summit to Camp 3
Day 6 : Camp 3 to Base Camp

Please note that we will climbing the Cesen Route.

Red triangles will be our Camps

Route of K2 summit day

I'm in Pakistan

I arrived to Pakistan on June 10th at 9pm.


I met most of the teammate. It is an international group with farily diversified climbing background. This group will climb Broad Peak then I will move on to K2, with Lakpa, Rob and Chris.

The initial plan was flying to Skardu. It is a 45minutes flight. Unfortunately, all the flights had been cancelled since June 6th due to bad weather. The Authority informed us that the next flight might be on June 15th. In other words, our flight should have been scheduled not before ~ the 18th of June. So we’ve decided to drive to Skardu.

The drive took us 2 full days. Islamabad to Chilaz : 18h drive, Chilaz to Skardu : 13h drive.

We arrived last night, exhausted....

Today we are checking the tents and fold the ropes. Tomorrow we will do a last minute shopping, and pack our bags. We are allowed to take 3 bags of 25kg each.